


Dance of the People

by samariumwriting



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:52:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25770121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samariumwriting/pseuds/samariumwriting
Summary: Alm needs to prepare to dance at the ball after his coronation, but he doesn't want to ask for help. Conrad discovers him while he's practising.
Relationships: Alm & Conrad (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Dance of the People

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was for a zine that fell through due to the mods dropping the ball. It's a real shame because the concept was strong and the finished content was great, but I'm glad to share the piece now!
> 
> If you happen to be one of like three people in the world including me who ships these lads, feel free to read this as a romantic interaction! :)

Alm was not much of a dancer. In fact, if someone like Clive or Celica asked him, he would say he didn’t dance at all; he grew up in a village, after all, and villages didn’t have dancing tutors or ballrooms like nobles did.

There was dancing in Ram, of course; come the completion of the harvest, someone would stand up and play the fiddle at the end of the feast, and everyone would crowd together, grab the closest partner, and they’d whirl round in endless circles, complicated steps Alm had known his whole life. They were easy formations, ingrained into all his muscles, but they weren’t...

Well, they weren’t noble dances. They were very, very different to anything Clair or even Lukas had learned as a child. So he just said that he didn’t know how to dance at all and left it at that.

And, well, all of this posed a problem. Because, for his coronation as King of Valentia, he needed to attend a ball. And when he attended said ball, he needed to open it by dancing with Celica.

It was getting worryingly close. He didn’t want to stumble and fall in front of a bunch of nobles and give a bad first impression. He didn’t want to disappoint Celica either. She was definitely well prepared, trained for this since the day she was born, and he...honesty, he was too embarrassed to admit to her that he couldn’t do it, which ruled out asking for help.

There was also a part of him that was a bit annoyed that he had to do all this nobility stuff. He knew that some of it came with the job description, but he wasn’t raised for it and a lot of it seemed entirely pointless. He’d hoped that he’d be able to change the nobility in Valentia, get rid of all the useless trappings and formalities and just work on the ‘helping the people’ part, but apparently that wasn’t on the cards just yet.

The only thing left to do was practise on his own, because even though he didn’t like it he knew he’d have to dance. He could find an empty room in the palace, close the door, close the curtains, and practise his steps. One, two, three, over and over and over. The movements became more natural, sure, but he was missing a lot of things he really needed. One of those being music.

One, two, three. One, two, three. Then turn, then lean forwards, then straighten up, and then-

Alm jumped out of his skin as his eyes met Conrad’s. “Good afternoon, Alm,” he greeted with a smile. “Practising for the coronation?”

“Giving it my best shot, anyway,” he replied, trying not to show quite how embarrassed he was. He hadn’t intended for anyone to see him before he felt ready. How long had Conrad even been watching him?

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice you were lacking music and a partner,” Conrad said, his tone sunny. Alm didn’t know him all that well, but he was always very polite, if distant. This didn’t seem like mockery. “Would you allow me to lend a hand, so to speak?”

Alm nodded, and dipped into a bow as Conrad offered his hand. It was, unsurprisingly, far easier to practise a paired dance when you actually had someone to dance with. Conrad let him lead, but it didn’t feel like he was doing all the work. It was more...if he pushed, Conrad pulled. If he turned, Conrad moved in tandem. A collaborative effort.

Several steps in, they fell out of time with each other, and Alm let out a noise of frustration as he tripped over his own ankle while trying to avoid standing on Conrad’s toes. “It’s easier with music,” Conrad promised. They stopped, and when they’d managed to fix their postures and start again, Conrad began to hum.

It was a tune Alm had heard before, which helped; the Zofian national anthem, which had been played and sung so many times when they marched as an army that he knew every beat and note (he also knew how passionate the nobles could get from just hearing it). And Conrad was right, it was easier. The steps just fell in line with each other, flowing backwards and forwards, until the song ended, Conrad stopped humming, and they drew to a halt.

Alm chuckled nervously under Conrad’s gaze. “I’m not very good,” he said. In response, Conrad shook his head fervently. Alm just hoped he couldn’t feel quite how sweaty his palms were.

“I think you’re doing well enough,” came the reply. “You have a lot of grace to your steps. Didn’t you tell Clive just the other day that you’d never danced before? I find that very hard to believe.”

“Well, I’ve danced a little,” he said. “Just not noble dances like the ones Clive knows.”

“Oh!” Conrad said with a bright smile. “I know a handful of dances I don’t think Clive would recognise, too. I was taught when I lived in Rigel. I don’t suppose they’d be the same as the ones you learned on the opposite side of the continent, but they were cheerful things.”

Alm didn’t quite know how he felt about Conrad calling the dances ‘cheerful’. He supposed it was accurate, because they were, but it sounded all too similar to nobles that called his upbringing ‘quaint’ or ‘rustic’. “Did you enjoy it?” he asked.

Conrad nodded. “I didn’t get to participate much, because I was often needed for odd jobs by the mage who sheltered me, but I’d dare say they were a lot more fun than anything I was ever taught in court growing up. The etiquette of who to dance with and when, what you should be wearing...all of it was exhausting. The dances of that village felt closer to what dancing should be.”

Alm grinned. Now there was a sentiment he could recognise, and while it wasn’t from the last person he’d expect it from (that would, of course, be Clive), it was strange to hear it from Conrad’s mouth. “Well, why don’t you teach me a dance or two from that village?” he asked.

Conrad’s face flushed a little. “If you’d like that, I’m sure I could try.”

“I’d love that,” Alm said firmly, shooting Conrad a smile. “And then I’ll teach you a couple from Ram, how about that?”

“Maybe we could try and get the orchestra to play a song for some of them at the coronation,” Conrad said, a mischievous look unlike anything Alm had ever seen from him before taking over his face.

Alm laughed, thinking of the image of all his friends from Ram attempting to coax the stuffy nobles into a barn dance. That would certainly make the evening a lot more interesting—and a lot more bearable. “I think that sounds like a fantastic idea,” he said. “Before that, though...” Conrad looked up, and Alm hesitated for just a moment before pushing his doubts aside.

He hummed the first couple of notes of a Rigelian folk tune Tatiana had taught him, and watched as Conrad’s face split into a bright grin. Alm bowed, stopping just short of kissing Conrad’s knuckles before straightening again. “May I have this dance, milord?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :) if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a comment. I also have a twitter @samariumwriting where I talk a lot about my fics.


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